I was watching a YouTube video recently about the kinds of people who might thrive in the age of artificial intelligence. The conversation touched on curiosity, systems thinking, and the ability to recognize patterns. All interesting subjects, especially now that we’re being told AI is going to change practically everything. Again.
One of the speakers described herself as a futurist. I understood what she meant, but the word didn’t quite resonate with me. I’m curious about the future, of course, but whenever I try to imagine where the world might be heading, my mind usually wanders in the opposite direction.
I start thinking about history.
Perhaps it’s partly because I’m Gen X. I’ve lived through the transition from an analogue world to a digital one. I’ve watched computers, the internet, and smartphones change how we live and work. Now there’s AI, and we’re once again trying to figure out what life will look like when the dust settles. At this point, I’m inclined to keep the brochures and wait for the reviews.
But my interest in history goes beyond technology. I’m curious about how people lived before us, how societies were organized, and how certain ideas became so widely accepted that we rarely question them anymore.
Take work, for example. Most of us spend a considerable part of our lives earning money, paying bills, meeting deadlines, and trying to fit some actual living into whatever time remains. We grow up knowing that this is simply what adults do. Get an education, find work, earn a living, and hopefully have enough left over to enjoy yourself occasionally.
I’m not suggesting people had it easier in the past. I’m rather fond of electricity, indoor plumbing, and not having to grow my own food. But I do wonder how much of what we consider normal today is simply the result of arrangements that developed long before we were born.
Who came up with these arrangements? What was happening in society at the time? What problems were people trying to solve? And whose interests were being served?
Those questions tend to lead me toward another subject I find fascinating: power.
The People Change, But What About the Systems?
When we follow current events, much of our attention goes to the people making headlines. Presidents, politicians, business leaders, billionaires. We discuss their decisions, personalities, and sometimes their questionable judgment.
But I often wonder how much influence these individuals actually have compared with the systems they operate within.
A new political leader might promise sweeping changes, but they’re still dealing with existing institutions, laws, economic pressures, and people with interests of their own. The same applies to businesses. A new CEO can arrive with ambitious plans, but that doesn’t mean everything surrounding the organization suddenly changes. Sometimes the faces change while the arrangements remain surprisingly familiar.
Of course, people can change systems. History would be rather depressing if they couldn’t. But I think understanding why certain structures persist is just as interesting as studying the people who temporarily occupy positions of authority.
And whenever I look at a particular arrangement, I find myself asking who benefits from it. That doesn’t mean I assume there’s someone secretly controlling everything. People can benefit from situations they didn’t create, and sometimes things happen because several interests happen to align. Human beings are quite capable of producing complicated outcomes without organizing a secret meeting first.
Still, I think it’s worth paying attention to incentives, relationships, and the decisions that shape our everyday lives.
And Now, Here Comes AI
This brings me back to the video.
Everyone seems to have an opinion about what AI will do to the future of work. Some believe it will create extraordinary opportunities. Others worry about jobs disappearing, businesses changing, and people becoming less relevant.
I can understand both perspectives. I work with digital systems myself, so I can see why automation is attractive. I also understand why someone might feel uneasy about teaching a machine to perform tasks they’ve spent years learning.
But the questions that interest me go a little further. Who owns these systems? Who decides how they’re used? If technology makes people more productive, who gets to enjoy the benefits?
I don’t have neat answers to those questions. And I don’t think looking at history will magically tell us what happens next. What it might do is help us recognize familiar patterns, question our assumptions, and notice things we might otherwise overlook while everyone is busy predicting the next big thing.
Perhaps that’s why I don’t particularly identify as a futurist. I enjoy imagining possibilities, but I’m more interested in understanding the world we’ve already built and the choices that brought us here.
After all, we’re constantly being encouraged to prepare for the future. I just wonder whether we’ve spent enough time understanding the present.
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